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City program brings resources to those in need

City program brings resources to those in need

News 8 at 5

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The mayor’s office has more people and more organizations on the streets in local neighborhoods that are offering anything they might need to help their area get back on its feet.

If you need your house brought up to code, animals taken out of bad situations or more, the Neighborhood Enhancement Team Operation (NETO) is trying to help residents in less than great situations live a little more comfortably.

Through the eight events they’ve done, they’ve had 600 requests come back for things people need from the city. So something is working, but with any program, there’s still room for improvement.

Before September, neighborhood sweeps would focus on code violations. But the city says now, they’re trying to help the people out instead of just look at their homes.

“[It] has been a really, I think, effective way to engage residents and meet real-time needs that might go unaddressed otherwise,” Indianapolis Deputy Mayor of Community Development Jeff Bennett said.

The way NETO decides which neighborhoods get help is by focusing on areas that have a high volume of reports to city services and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

“We can look at public safety data, we can look at existing code enforcement data to try to kind of predict where the need may be or arise for social services and go in and lead with the connections for residents and follow up on the code enforcement,” Bennett said.

News 8 tried talking to some of the people who live in these neighborhoods where the mayor’s office said they’ve done some of these outreach programs, but both residents and the neighborhoods themselves had no idea what NETO was.

“That’s great! We understand that they have probably reached out to a couple of sites here on the east side – far east side,” Far Eastside Community Council President Clare Pope said. “Unfortunately, that knowledge has not been made available to our particular organization, the Far Eastside Community Council.”

News 8 was able to connect the council with the mayor’s office to help figure out where the communication issue was; so everyone who needs help can get it.

“Making sure that we partner with the mayor’s office to get this information out to the residents and our community constituents so that when they are out here that we are prepared to receive them and be able to utilize the outreach to the fullest capacity,” Pope said.

The next event is going to be in the Grace Tuxedo neighborhood near Sherman and Washington on July 24.